Free Oregon Residential Lease Agreement
A configurable Oregon residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to current Oregon law — the statewide rent cap and the way the maximum is actually set each September, the just-cause rule that arrives after the first year, and the three 2026 acts that are in force but not yet in the printed code.
An Oregon residential lease agreement is the written contract between a landlord and a residential tenant, governed by the Oregon Residential Landlord and Tenant Act at ORS chapter 90, with the eviction procedure at ORS 105.100 to 105.168. Oregon is not an ordinary uniform-act state. It was the first state in the country to adopt statewide rent stabilisation and a statewide just-cause requirement, and it has amended chapter 90 in every session since. Two consequences follow for anyone drafting a lease here. First, the rent cap is not a number in the statute: ORS 90.324 sets a formula and tells the Oregon Department of Administrative Services to publish the maximum for the following year by September 30 each year — so a lease or a template that prints a percentage is wrong within twelve months. Second, the printed code is behind: oregonlegislature.gov serves chapter 90 as the 2025 Edition under a banner saying the 2026 session amended it, and three 2026 acts took effect on June 5, 2026 that appear in no codified section text yet. This page is built from the session laws as well as the code.
Oregon Lease Rules at a Glance
Security Deposit Maximum
None
Deposit Accounting & Return
31 Days
Rent Increase Notice
90 Days
Cause to End a Tenancy
After Year 1
Five Oregon Rules That Catch Landlords Out
First, the rent cap is a published figure, not a lease term. ORS 90.324 makes the Department of Administrative Services calculate and publish it by September 30 for the following calendar year; the lease should point at the mechanism, not at a number. Second, after the first year of occupancy you cannot end a tenancy without a reason at all — ORS 90.427(3)(c) requires either a tenant cause or one of four qualifying landlord reasons, and a qualifying reason costs one month’s rent paid to the tenant at the time of the notice unless the landlord owns four or fewer units. Third, a fee that is not written into the lease cannot be charged: ORS 90.302(1) bans any beginning-of-tenancy fee for an anticipated expense and requires every fee to be described in the written rental agreement. Fourth, the smoking policy is a required term of the agreement itself under ORS 90.220(4) and ORS 479.305, and it is the single most commonly omitted item in an Oregon lease. Fifth, a twenty-four-hour entry notice does not give you a right to enter — under ORS 90.322(1)(f) the tenant may deny consent after receiving it, and then you may not.
How to Fill Out This Oregon Lease Agreement
1. Name the manager and the owner separately
ORS 90.305(1) requires two identifications, not one: the person authorized to manage the premises, and an owner or a person authorized to act for the owner for service of process and for receiving notices and demands. They are often the same person and often are not. A person who manages or signs the lease without disclosing them becomes an agent for service of process by operation of law.
2. Describe the premises and count the units
The unit count is load-bearing twice. At four or fewer dwelling units on the premises, ORS 90.310 requires the landlord to disclose any pending foreclosure, forfeiture or tax lien proceeding before the lease is executed. At five or more, ORS 90.318 may require a recycling notice at signing.
3. Set the term and record the two just-cause branches
After the first year of occupancy the no-cause route disappears. Two facts change what the lease must say: whether the landlord holds four or fewer residential dwelling units, which decides the relocation payment under ORS 90.427(6)(b); and whether the unit sits in an owner-occupied property of not more than two dwelling units, which unlocks the separate track in ORS 90.427(8).
4. Set rent and state the cap mechanism
ORS 90.323(2) forbids any increase during the first year, more than one increase in any twelve-month period, an increase after the first year on less than ninety days written notice, or an increase above the maximum ORS 90.324(1) sets. The generated lease states the formula, the publisher and the September deadline rather than freezing a percentage.
5. Choose the late charge form
ORS 90.260 allows nothing before the fourth day of the rental period, and then only a reasonable flat amount, a per-day amount capped at six percent of that flat amount, or five percent of the periodic rent for each five-day period. The lease has to specify the type, the amount and the dates or the charge is not available at all.
6. List the deposit and every fee
ORS 90.300(3) requires the written rental agreement to list any security deposit paid or required. ORS 90.302(1) goes further: a fee must be described in a written rental agreement, so a fee left off the page cannot be charged at all, and charging it anyway costs twice the tenant’s actual damages or three hundred dollars.
7. Check the disclosures, generate, and hand over a copy
The smoking policy, the flood plain notice, the manager and owner identification, any pending legal proceedings, the two utility disclosures, the fee schedule, the smoke alarm and carbon monoxide notices, the recycling notice, and, for housing built before 1978, the federal lead disclosure. No witnesses and no notary are needed. ORS 90.220(3) requires the landlord to give the tenant a copy of the written agreement and of every amendment.
Build Your Oregon Residential Lease Agreement
Complete the fields below to generate an Oregon residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document — the utility allocations, the late-charge form, the just-cause branches, the nonpayment notice track and each disclosure you check — and the generated lease cites the controlling ORS section at each point. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening, remembering that Oregon regulates the screening stage heavily under ORS 90.295, ORS 90.303 and ORS 90.304. Pair the signed lease with an Oregon move-in / move-out checklist — Oregon has no statutory condition inspection, which is exactly why a private record matters here.
Oregon Residential Lease Agreement Builder
1. Parties
ORS 90.305 requires two identifications, not one: the person authorized to manage the premises, and an owner or a person authorized to act for the owner for service of process. A person who manages or signs the lease without disclosing them becomes an agent for service of process by operation of law.
2. Premises
The unit count matters twice. At four or fewer dwelling units on the premises, ORS 90.310 requires disclosure of any pending foreclosure, forfeiture or tax lien proceeding. At five or more, ORS 90.318 may require a recycling notice at signing.
3. Term & Just Cause
After the first year of occupancy an Oregon landlord cannot end a tenancy without cause at all (ORS 90.427(3)(c)). Two branches change what the lease must say: whether the landlord owns four or fewer dwelling units, which decides the one-month relocation payment under ORS 90.427(6)(b); and whether this is a two-unit owner-occupied property under ORS 90.427(8).
4. Rent & the Statewide Rent Cap
Oregon caps rent increases statewide, but the number is not in the statute. ORS 90.324 tells the Oregon Department of Administrative Services to publish the maximum for the following year by September 30, as the lesser of ten percent or seven percent plus CPI. The generated lease states the mechanism, not just a figure.
5. Late Charge
ORS 90.260 allows a late charge only if rent is not received by the fourth day of the rental period and the written lease specifies the obligation, the type, the amount and the dates. Three forms are permitted and no others — a flat amount, a per-day amount, or a five-percent charge per five-day period.
6. Security Deposit — no cap, strict timing
Oregon sets no maximum on a security deposit. What it regulates is timing: any deposit must be listed in the written rental agreement, no new or increased deposit may be required during the first year, and the accounting and the refund are both due within 31 days after the tenancy terminates and the tenant delivers possession.
7. Fees — ORS 90.302
A fee that is not described in the written rental agreement cannot be charged at all, and no fee may be taken at the beginning of the tenancy for an anticipated landlord expense. List every fee this lease will allow.
8. Utilities & Services
Assign each utility. ORS 90.315 then adds two written duties: disclose any utility the tenant pays that benefits the landlord or other tenants, and explain how a billed charge is assessed and allocated.
9. Landlord Entry
ORS 90.322(1)(f) sets at least twenty-four hours’ actual notice, and in the same paragraph gives the tenant the right to deny consent after receiving it. A longer agreed period is permitted; a shorter one is not.
10. Oregon Disclosures
Oregon requires ten things in or with a residential lease, plus the federal lead disclosure for housing built before 1978. The smoking policy is the one most Oregon leases leave out — ORS 90.220(4) makes it a required term of the rental agreement itself.
11. Other Provisions
ORS 90.255 awards reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, so a landlord-only fee clause is unenforceable. The option below generates the reciprocal form only.
What Types of Oregon Lease Agreement Are There?
Oregon recognises three tenancy shapes and defines each in ORS 90.100. A fixed term tenancy runs to a specific ending date and terminates on that date without further notice. A month-to-month tenancy renews automatically on the same terms until one or both parties end it. A week-to-week tenancy is narrower than most people assume: it exists only where occupancy is charged weekly and payable no less frequently than every seven days, there is a written rental agreement defining both parties’ rights, and there are no fees or security deposits at all, though an applicant screening charge is still allowed. If a rental agreement creates neither a week-to-week nor a fixed term tenancy, ORS 90.220(7)(b) makes it month-to-month by default.
Several arrangements sit outside this form. A manufactured dwelling or floating home space in a facility runs under ORS 90.505 to 90.850, with its own rent-increase figures and its own termination code at ORS 90.630; a recreational vehicle in a park needs the specific written agreement ORS 90.230 prescribes; vacation occupancy and transient occupancy are excluded from the Act altogether by the definitions in ORS 90.100; and a commercial lease is not governed by chapter 90 at all.
One drafting point Oregon makes unusually sharp. Chapter 90 does not require most residential tenancies to be in writing — but a great many of its duties are expressed as things a written rental agreement must contain or may permit. A security deposit must be listed in the written agreement (ORS 90.300(3)). A fee must be described in the written agreement (ORS 90.302(1)). A late charge is available only if the written agreement specifies the type, the amount and the dates (ORS 90.260(1)). A utility charge may be billed only because the written agreement so provides (ORS 90.315(4)(a)). Carpet cleaning may be deducted from a deposit only if the written agreement says so (ORS 90.300(7)(c)(A)). Mail-and-attachment service of notices is available only if the written agreement provides for it in both directions (ORS 90.155(1)(c)). An unwritten Oregon tenancy is not unlawful; it is simply one in which the landlord has forfeited most of the tools.
How Much Can an Oregon Landlord Raise the Rent?
No more than the maximum annual rent increase percentage published for that calendar year by the Oregon Department of Administrative Services. That sentence, and not a percentage, is the correct answer — and it is the single biggest thing the ranking template pages get wrong.
ORS 90.324(1) sets the mechanism. No later than September 30 of each year the department must calculate the maximum annual rent increase percentage allowed for the following calendar year. For tenancies subject to ORS 90.600(1) in facilities with more than thirty spaces the figure is fixed at six percent. For everything else — including every ordinary tenancy governed by ORS 90.323 — the maximum is the lesser of ten percent, or seven percent plus CPI. “CPI” is defined in ORS 90.324(4) as the September annual twelve-month average change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, West Region (All Items), as most recently published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Two duties follow. ORS 90.324(2) requires the department to publish the percentages, along with the text of ORS 90.323 and ORS 90.600, in a press release by the same date. ORS 90.324(3) requires it to keep the previous year’s, the current year’s and (from September 30) the following year’s figures on its website. So there is always an authoritative published number, and it is never in the lease.
The practical point is the one every template misses. Because seven percent plus CPI has run above ten percent in recent years, the ten percent ceiling is the term that has actually bound. The department published ten percent for 2025 and nine and one-half percent for 2026. A page that says “Oregon caps increases at seven percent plus inflation” is describing a rule that has not been the operative limit. Read the published figure for the year in which the increase takes effect, at the Department of Administrative Services rent stabilisation page, and see our Oregon rent increase laws guide.
The formula itself changed recently, which is another reason old copy is unreliable. The current wording of ORS 90.324 comes from 2023 Oregon Laws chapter 226, which replaced the earlier seven-percent-plus-CPI-with-no-ceiling rule with the lesser-of test, and from 2025 Oregon Laws chapter 387, which carved out the separate six percent figure for larger manufactured dwelling and marina facilities.
When Can an Oregon Landlord Raise the Rent, and With How Much Notice?
Not in the first year, not more than once in twelve months, and after the first year only on at least ninety days’ written notice. ORS 90.323(2) stacks four separate limits on a tenancy other than week-to-week: no increase during the first year after the tenancy begins; no increase after the first year without written notice at least ninety days before the effective date; no more than one increase in any twelve-month period; and no increase by a percentage greater than the ORS 90.324(1) maximum. A week-to-week tenancy takes at least seven days‘ written notice under ORS 90.323(1) and is outside the percentage cap.
What the notice must say (ORS 90.323(3)): the amount of the rent increase, the amount of the new rent, the date on which the increase becomes effective, and — where the increase relies on an exemption — the facts supporting it. Serve it with an Oregon rent increase notice, and remember that service by first class mail adds three days under ORS 90.155(2).
The two exemptions (ORS 90.323(5)) remove only the percentage cap, never the first-year freeze, the once-a-year limit or the notice period. They are: the first certificate of occupancy for the dwelling unit was issued less than fifteen years before the date of the increase notice; or the unit is regulated or certified as affordable housing by a federal, state or local government and the change in rent does not increase the tenant’s own portion of the rent, or is required by program eligibility requirements or by a change in the tenant’s income.
What it costs to get wrong (ORS 90.323(6)): a landlord who increases rent in violation of the percentage cap is liable to the tenant for three months’ rent plus actual damages. There is a matching anti-avoidance rule in ORS 90.323(4): a landlord who ends a first-year tenancy on a thirty-day no-cause notice under ORS 90.427(3) or (4) may not charge the next tenancy more than the terminated tenancy could lawfully have been charged.
Does Oregon Require Cause to End a Tenancy?
Yes — after the first year of occupancy. This is the second half of Oregon’s 2019 reform and the rankers describe Oregon as a thirty-day-notice state, which is only true for the first year.
The definition does the work. ORS 90.427(1)(a) provides that “first year of occupancy” includes all periods in which any of the tenants has resided in the dwelling unit for one year or less. Signing a sitting tenant to a new fixed term does not restart the clock, and adding a new co-tenant does not extend it.
During the first year a landlord may end a month-to-month tenancy on at least thirty days‘ written notice with no reason stated (ORS 90.427(3)(b)), and may end a fixed term whose specified ending date falls inside the first year on at least thirty days’ notice, or thirty days before the designated termination date, whichever is later (ORS 90.427(4)(b)). Use an Oregon notice of non-renewal where the tenancy is genuinely first-year.
After the first year the landlord may terminate only for a tenant cause under one of the named sections — ORS 86.782(6)(c), 90.380(5), 90.392, 90.394, 90.396, 90.398, 90.405, 90.440 or 90.445 — or for a qualifying landlord reason with the notice ORS 90.427(5) and (6) describe. A fixed term whose ending date falls after the first year becomes a month-to-month tenancy on expiry unless the parties agree a new fixed term, the tenant gives thirty days’ notice, or the landlord has a qualifying reason (ORS 90.427(4)(c)).
A tenant may end a month-to-month tenancy at any time on not less than thirty days’ written notice, and either party may end a week-to-week tenancy on at least ten days‘ notice. See Oregon lease termination laws and, for the tenant’s routes out, Oregon breaking-lease laws.
What Are the Qualifying Landlord Reasons, and What Do They Cost?
Four reasons, ninety days’ notice, and one month’s rent paid to the tenant — unless the landlord owns four or fewer units. The four reasons in ORS 90.427(5)(a) are:
- The landlord intends to demolish the dwelling unit or convert it to a use other than residential use within a reasonable time.
- The landlord intends to undertake repairs or renovations within a reasonable time and the premises is unsafe or unfit for occupancy, or will be during the work.
- The landlord, or a member of the landlord’s immediate family, intends to occupy the dwelling unit as a primary residence, and the landlord does not own a comparable unit in the same building available for occupancy at the same time the tenant receives the notice.
- The landlord has accepted an offer to purchase from a person who in good faith intends to occupy the unit as that person’s primary residence, and has provided written evidence of the offer with the notice.
“Immediate family” is defined in ORS 90.427(1)(b) and reaches an adult relative by blood, adoption, marriage or domestic partnership; an unmarried parent of a joint child; a child, grandchild, foster child, ward or guardian; and the child, grandchild, foster child, ward or guardian of any of those.
The sixty-day alternative. The purchase ground alone may be run on not less than sixty days‘ notice under ORS 90.427(5)(b), but only if the landlord provides the written evidence of the offer and, at the time of giving the notice, pays the tenant an amount equal to one month’s periodic rent in addition to any relocation payment otherwise due.
The relocation payment, and the exemption that decides everything. ORS 90.427(6)(a)